4.3 International approaches – overview

This section summarises the approach to clean energy employment data in each of the IEA member countries, or in the case of the EU, country groupings (see Table 4).. Appendix 2 gives a summary of how energy efficiency and renewable energy are monitored, and whether the monitoring is regular or ad hoc, and the main approaches.

The U.S. is leading on the publication of comprehensive, national, disaggregated clean energy employment data. The EU also provides comprehensive data on renewable energy, but not energy efficiency. Several European countries, such as the UK and Germany, provide detailed national level data. The UK achieves high survey return levels by making it mandatory. Compared to the leaders, Australia lags on clean energy employment and market value data.

Beyond these groupings however, data is patchy and other countries generally do not produce national level clean energy employment data. While Australia’s ABS surveys and the annual Clean Energy Council reports fall well short of best practice, that is, the comprehensive publications of the U.S, and the EU, it is a basis from which Australia can build. For some areas of data collection, challenges remain in most countries. For example, information on salaries in the renewables sector is fragmented (Muro, Rothwell and Saha, 2011). Appendix 5 gives case studies that provide more details on coverage and methodologies for the best practice examples identified.

4.3.1 Europe

Of the thirty IEA member countries, twenty are included in the EurObserv’ER report (EurObserv’ER, 2019). The state of the renewable energy sector across EU member states is reported annually in the EurObserv’ER barometer, along with sectoral publications every two months (current issues include the UK, although this is likely to change). The report covers energy, technological and economic dimensions, including employment and the economic activity of each sector covered, assessed using input-output tables. The EU report covers only renewable energy, not energy efficiency, and covers both direct and indirect employment. The EurObserv’ER also covers eight EU member states that are not IEA members:

• Bulgaria • Croatia

• Romania

• Cyprus • Latvia

• Slovenia

• Lithuania

• Malta Some individual countries, such as Germany and the UK, publish their own data on clean energy employment in addition to the EurObserv’ER. In the UK, the Low Carbon and Renewable Energy Economy (LCREE) is an annual survey of businesses undertaken by the Office of National Statistics covering the whole of the UK low carbon and renewable energy sector (Office for National Statistics, 2021). It covers market value and direct employment for 17 low-carbon sectors including renewable energy and energy efficiency. Businesses included in the survey are legally required to complete it.

Germany assesses the size and development of the energy efficiency (EE) and renewable energy (RE) sectors on an annual basis, and the federal government is responsible for both. For RE, the estimates are based on IO analysis and use input multipliers for 13 RE technologies that have been developed based upon surveys. The EE assessment includes estimates of employment and market size, based on both surveys and I/O tables. Individual surveys on employment and market development/size are conducted by research institutions under contract to the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology. Employment and market size of the renewable energy sector are reported by two government departments: the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology and the National Office of Statistics. A combination of I/O and surveys is used. The RE sector has been growing since the early 2000s and employment has been accelerated by the Energiewende – the phase-out of nuclear and shift towards large-scale wind and solar energy.

Switzerland, Norway and Turkey, although European countries, are not EU member states and are therefore not covered by the EurObserv’ER. IRENA data on renewable energy sector employment provides an indication of national data availability. For most sectors employment data for these countries are IRENA estimates based on employment factors and capacity or manufacturing data (IRENA Jobs Database, 2021). A scan of other potential sources confirmed that these countries do not appear to produce regular, systematic clean energy employment data.

4.3.2 North America

The U.S. Energy and Employment Report (USEER), produced annually since 2016, is widely considered to be the gold standard for measuring and reporting energy sector employment and value. It is based on an annual survey returned by approximately 25,000 businesses across five sectors, which is scaled up using Department of Energy data and Census data for employment and wages (NASEO & EFI, 2020). The report and methodology are peer reviewed. The USEER provides nationwide coverage of the entire energy sector, including renewable energy and energy efficiency and it covers several employment-related indicators including total direct employment numbers. It does not cover indirect or induced employment.